i used to think the problem was on the seller side. and to an extent, i think people who sell click clacks do bear some responsibility for the prices they can reach. i am guilty of selling click clacks at a markup, but only when offered a set price -- i'd rather sell them to people for what they're worth to them, assuming i paid 'retail'.
at this point though, i think if someone wants to pay a lot of money for a piece of plastic, and they're spending their own income on it, then they have to take some responsibility for raising prices.
no matter what, it sucks for people who don't have the money to get the things they want, but ESPECIALLY with a place like geekhack, hype is a major factor. there are definitely a lot of people (myself included, at least when i first got into mechs) who get excited about all the cool (new to them) toys that are on the market, and of course with a collecting hobby, rarity (artificial or otherwise) is going to play a big part in how much certain things are coveted.
i have to say, as soon as I got my kmac (first "expensive" mech, first "custom") i started to become disillusioned with the collecting aspect. the damn thing offered no measurable benefit by subjective standards to me. i had paid tons of money and waited for delivery and assembly only to find that a cherry switch is a cherry switch is a cherry switch, and by that time i'd bought my first realforce and figured out that i preferred topre to anything else available. if only i'd just bought a type-S hhkb before getting my trusty old leopold, i could have avoided spending a lot of money on things that i didn't need to.
so kids: think about what you're buying. do your research. treat the hype as just that -- people don't hype things for no reason, but it's often overblown and especially in this hobby, everything comes down to subjective preference.
/rant
